Quitting Solves Problems

I have been reading a Bo Sanchez book entitled How to Turn Thoughts Into Things. One of the most important things I learned is about quitting.

Quitting solves Problems, dearies. Actually, more often than not, quitting is the way to reach your dreams. You just gotta know what, when, where and how.

Three things first:
1. Purpose – your goal
2. Path – your way of getting there
3. Problem – the thing that blocks your way

For everything that we want, it is important that we define our Purpose and our Paths. For starters, you may want to be a Dean’s Lister, or a new car, or new friends, or a girlfriend. Next, you’d want to go map view first and examine all seeable Paths and take one.

Sometimes, Paths have Problems. For someone who wants to be a Dean’s Lister and chooses to take the Path where he/she lets go of her social life may have a Problem with that Path. He/she will keep on taking that Path until he/she achieves his/her Purpose but by then, he/she’ll be as lonely as a cactus. If only he/she quit that Path and chose another one, one with Problems he/she can deal with, like focusing and studying hard in class instead of after class, he/she might get to his/her Purpose without baggage.

Why don’t people quit?
1. They often confuse their Purpose with their Paths.
People who want to live happy lives choose a Path they’d like to take to bring them happiness. Let’s say someone believes that having a romantic relationship will make them truly happy. They’d find one, and oh, look, they’re happy. If this relationship develops a really big Problem, like the other person doesn’t really love them, it’s easy to say that this person should just quit. But sometimes, if this person confuses this Path (relationship) to be his Purpose (instead of happiness), he/she may try and try and try to fix the Problem and not get him/her anywhere near his/her original Purpose.

2. They become unclear with their Purpose.
In the case of our little Dean’s Lister, he/she might start out with the Purpose of being a DL, but as he/she follows the Path he/she decides to take, he/she might be thinking that his/her real Purpose is to show people he/she works very, very hard enough to shut everyone out of his/her life. That’s why he/she doesn’t quit that Path.

3. They think there is only one Path.
Going back to the happiness through romantic relationship example with the same Problem, we may say that he/she might not have confused his/her Purpose with the Path, instead, believes that a romantic relationship is the only way he/she can achieve happiness. We tend to think this is the only way for things that’s why we solve things head on. If you want to get a big block of wood through a small hole on the way, you’ll never get what you want if you keep on thinking there is only that small hole.

Dearies, all Paths we take have Problems; we just have to choose the one with Problems we can handle. In any case, quitting a Path doesn’t make you a failure, it just shows you’re smart and mature enough to see that you’re not gonna get anywhere with it and you’re willing to find another that will get you closer to your Purpose.

Trying to fix a Problem isn’t a bad idea either, but come to think of it, fixing the Problem will require you to change your ways, therefore changing your Path. You don’t change Problems, you try a different Path.